Bad blogger...

Do you think it means something that the majority of my blog posts have to do with being busy, and never blogging?
Yeah, I didn't either. ;)

Last weekend was full of fun-- we had a great time and got to do a TON. Friday we had Mike, Kelly, Tim and Becca over for BBQ and drinks. It was great to see them all, and J did a great job with the BBQ- everything was perfect!
Saturday, we went to Katy's graduation, and that's going to get its own post...
Sunday we shopped/cleaned/worked on stuff we've been putting off for quite a while...
Monday we BBQed again at my parents' house and got to hang out with the whole fam. It's nice to have my sister home from school, and to get to see everyone.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

Long time, no blog...

It's been a little busy around here lately, so here are the quick highlights from the last few weeks:

Happy 1st birthday to two of our favorite one year olds:
Collin and Madeline! We had a ton of fun at Maddy's birthday party-- check out the pics on Maureen's blog.

I got promoted. Now, I'm a "level 2," which means... well... it means that I do more of what I already do with just a little more pay. Not all it's cracked up to be, but progress none the less.

J is in the midst of finals. (Yes, he still takes classes. :))
Two big papers down, one paper and a final to go tomorrow. GOOOOO J! He's looking forward to a nice summer break, and I'm looking forward to having my husband back. :)

This weekend for Mother's day, we did lots of fun family stuff:
We went bike riding and to the winery with my family on Saturday, and
spent Sunday with J's family decorating his dad's office and out for some great pizza.

For our Mommas on Mother's Day:

For Miss Mary: (they always joke about who the favorite child is)
For my Mom: ('cause we're too much alike, and have been known to drive each other crazy)
We love you Moms! Happy Mother's Day!

this pretty much sums it all up...

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey, not a destination..." -Souza

EaRtHqUaKe! !! ! !!

Whew! I woke up at about 4:30 this morning (which isn't that unusual for me...) shaking... I couldn't figure out if it was just an adrenaline-charged awakening from a dream, but things were rattling, Bailey woke up, and several of the dogs outside were barking. I stayed in bed for a bit, convinced that it was a dream, and then finally got up for some validation. Low and behold, we felt the shocks from an earthquake near the I*llinois/Indi*ana border! So far, everything here is fine-- not even a picture off a wall! Hope it was fairly minor for everyone else! :)

How fast are you?

During a stressful week, this makes for some fun... try it and see how you do! And, BTW, I didn't cheat-- that was my first try. :)

54 words

Speedtest

Things I adore...

Okay, Mo, I'm giving you a shout out right back ... :)

I've become an avid blog reader. Something about reading about others lives is really interesting to me. And, after some of the worlds longest days at work talking and answering questions, all I want to do is relax and NOT talk. :) A good sit on the couch, watching the news, and reading my blogs is sometimes exactly what I need.

My addiction began by clicking the little "Next Blog >>" link at the top of the page. (See, it's up there... try it out sometime) What I found is another story for another day, but needless to say, the web of links from one blog to another has left me with a nice little "blogroll" that I check each week. When I would finally find the time to sit down and check them all, I would click on each link, wait for the page to load, and see if there was an update. Sometimes that took forever because people have these massive templates or a million slideshows, etc. and wait for 5 minutes while it loaded, only to find no new post.

I was talking about this with my friend Maureen, who introduced me to this lovely tool:

Google Reader

Anyone with a G*mail account/G*ogle ID/whatever they call it can create one-- if you look at the top of your G*mail page, you'll see a normal blue link to it. All you have to do is go in, load your links, and with one little click each day, it pulls the RSS feeds for you and you can view the updates in the viewing pane on the right. How freakin cool is that? It makes my blog reading much more enjoyable and keeps my old as heck computer from freezing up. LOVE IT.

The only thing I'm still trying to figure out is that for some of the blogs I follow, it only pulls up a piece of the text, and there's no way (that I can figure out) to see it all without having to open the blog in a new window... If anyone has that figured out, let me know. :) Still, very very worthwhile.


Function: A- (when I learn how to see the whole post, it gets an A+)
Form: whatever... it's simple like all Google stuff, and I like that. Too many of these things are way too flashy... A
Price: uh, it's free, which totally gives it an A+

You say it's your birthday... it's my birthday too, yeah!

Happy happy birthday (within the last week) to J's dad, K, and M! We got to celebrate with the first two (kind of) last weekend, and will celebrate with my not-so-little-anymore sis this weekend. (M is 20 and K is 18!!! Who can believe it??!?!?!!)

Also, my birthday falls in the middle of the amazing family birthday week, so I got to celebrate with them! I had a great birthday weekend, sandwiched in between very very busy weeks at work, but the weekend was a relaxing break with WONDERFUL weather! And, I am sad to report that I'm officially in my late 20s now. Wow. My amazing husband made it a lot more fun with a cake, flowers, and gifts, including a new treadmill. :) Thanks to everyone for the gifts, cards, emails, and facebook messages! :)